Oliver Wood Decides to Quit Quidditch
by DiffidentlyYours
Summary: Oliver Wood knows the importance and place of Quidditch in his life but he has to let go of it, he has no choice. McGonagall, however, comes up with a solution that'll let him play again. The plan is perfect in every way but one: the solution is the arch enemy of Wood...or is she?
1. Wonky Faint She Called It!

**A/N: Hello my fellow witches and wizards. I hope you enjoy your stay! Also, a special thanks to Maria for rectifying my countless mistakes!**

Oliver Wood was one of the few students who loved going back to school after the holidays. He loved coming back for the feasts, his friends and, most importantly, Quidditch - the most beautiful game in the world. He was appointed the captain of Gryffindor quidditch team last year, and it was one of the happiest moments of his life.

This year, however, Wood didn't want to come back. He didn't want to ravish the feasts, didn't want to hangout with his friends, didn't want to do anything. Because this year, in fact today, he was going to say goodbye to his one and only love.

"Please take my resignation professor." Wood said with determined eyes.

"But what's wrong Wood, where is this coming from? Don't you still want to win the Quidditch trophy with Gryffindor?" McGonagall panned.

"I do professor, believe me. But myO.W.L.s didn't go very well and my dad wants me to devote all my focus on studies now, for N.E.W.T.s," he explained.

McGonagall knew Wood wanted to win the Cup as much as she did, perhaps even more, but his parents had a point. Wood usually concentrated all of his energy on Quidditch which made his studies suffer. She had to come up with a solution, she couldn't just let her captain quit. She had to think of something that would both let Wood play and devote some energy towards studies.

And then the brilliant notion struck.

"Wood, will you please go and fetch Ms. Sharma for me? And please be back as soon as you can!" She exclaimed, with a weird sort of twinkle in her eye.

It didn't take a long time for Wood to put the two and two together.

"Professor is there really nobody else? Does it have to be her? It's just that... we don't really see eye to eye." Wood pleaded, but deep down he knew the answer.

"Do you really want me to answer that Wood?"

Samridhi Sharma was a transfer student in Wood's class, who had joined Hogwarts last year from Nalanda School of Sorcery in India and in a short period of time she had become the top student here at Hogwarts and Oliver Wood's arch enemy.

...

 _It all started one afternoon when Wood was telling off Alicia Spinnet for being late at the practice._

 _"But Oliver, Snape held me off-"_

 _"I don't want to hear excuses, you could've told him you were getting late for quidditch practice."_

 _"Then he would've held me back ev-"_

 _"Look you came late, just apologize and mo-"_

 _"Hey! She has nothing to apologize for Wood. She told you it was Snape's fault." The new girl, who was standing by the pitch spoke up._

 _"This doesn't concern you Sharma." Wood dismissed, without even looking at her._

 _"It concerns me when you're treating a team member unfairly and imposing your authority just for the sake of getting the last word!" she snapped._

 _Everyone was now looking at her. No one ever spoke Wood like that, especially not criticising his captaincy. All the students knew how passionate and devoted Wood was regarding Quidditch and his captaincy, it was almost all that he cared about at school frankly._

 _Wood finally faced her defiant dark eyes, his own blue ones mimicking the same expression._

 _"I'm sorry, do you have a problem?"_

 _"Yes, I do in fact have a problem. I don't like you belittling my friend for something that wasn't her fault. At least let her finish her damn sentences!" she roared._

 _"I told you it's none of your business. You've barely been here for three months and you're acting like you know everything. Just go to the library, or somewhere you actually have a clue what you're talking about."_

 _"I'll go to the library when you take that stick out of your ass." She sassed._

 _But before it could turn uglier, Fred brought to everyone's notice that McGonagall was now watching them from the stands. The fight was dissolved for now, but it led to the start of a very long war between the Gryffindor's Quidditch captain and the smartest girl in the year._

...

Oliver reached the Gryffindor common room in about 15 minutes, taking his time, gathering his thoughts on how he was going to talk to the girl whom he had not spoken to for almost a year. Should he say hi? Should he just deliver the message? Should he just go back to McGonagall's office and make an excuse that he couldn't find her? Hmm… option three was looking really good right now.

"Wattlebird," he muttered the password.

There she was, with that git Percy Weasley in all her holier than thou glory. Both of them were probably discussing something from that day's paper, judging by the looks of it.

"I don't know Percy, this Rita Skeeter lady, I just can't seem to trust her."

"But she's one of the most celebrated journalists of the Prophet!" Percy defended.

Oliver walked up to them and hesitantly spoke,"Yeah I think I agree with Sharma on this one. Her article about Viktor Krum last weak was full of mistakes. Wonky Faint she called it!"

Sharma's face was a mixture of shock, confusion and a little bit of intrigue whereas Percy had annoyance written all over his.

"Sharma, McGonagall wants to see you in her office."

"Oh, alright…umm..thanks for informing me Wood. See you later Percy." She waved and set out for the door.

Wood followed behind her.

"It's alright Wood, I know where her office is."

"Oh no, she wants to see me as well."

Samridhi narrowed her eyes. Why would Professor McGonagall want to see both of them together?

Nobody spoke as they went down the stairs. It was awkward, to say the least. Two students of the same year, same house, both walking in the same direction, step by step without even looking at each other, like soldiers marching (but with a much worse posture).

"Good, you two are here! Please take a seat, both of you, I just have to finish writing these letters to Mr. Weasley and Mr. Potter's families."

Everyone had heard about what happened with the two second years. Weasley had flown his father's enchanted car to Hogwarts since they'd missed their train, and they were spotted by muggles, to add even more trouble, they had crashed into Whomping Willow.

McGonagall finally finished her letter after a few minutes and then spoke,"Ms. Sharma, I know you're new to our school but I'm sure you must know by now that Wood here is the captain of our Quidditch team." Sharma nodded as McGonagall continued,"So he has to spend a lot of time developing techniques and formations which leaves little time for his studies. Now, since you'll be giving N.E.W.T.s next year, Wood wants to resign to focus more on his studies."

Sharma was astounded. Even though she wasn't particularly fond of Wood, she knew how much Quidditch meant to him. That's all he talked about from what she'd heard. She turned towards him in shock but Wood didn't even flinch, he really had made up his mind.

"Now, I want to convince Wood to stay and for that I require your help. Would you tutor him so that his grades improve and he continues to play Quidditch?" McGonagall asked, with no hint of request in her voice.

All colour drained from Samridhi's face. Tutor Wood? For whole two years? Until the N.E.W.T.s? Tutor the insufferable git whom she had a beef with? Which involved devoting time each day in exclusive company of each other? She'd rather battle a dragon thank you very much.

"Professor, I personally think that Percy would be a better fit for Wood. You see Wood and I aren't particularly fond of each other." Samridhi replied.

"Oh no, you're on the top of the class and you excel in every subject that Wood has. Weasley, besides being a prefect, hasn't got two of the subjects that Wood is particularly weak in. Charms and Arithmancy. You'd be the perfect fit. And coming to your second point, Wood has already mentioned that. But I think both of you are mature enough to put aside your differences for the sake of Gryffindor and your personal interests as well. Or is it no longer your ambition to teach one day Ms. Sharma? It'll be really beneficial for you too."

Wood was looking at Sharma from the corner of his eye. She seemed to be considering McGonagall's proposal. He wondered if she'd reject it because of what happened between them in the past, then he'd have to quit. He was sure his parents would be convinced if they knew that McGonagall had personally assigned him a tutor, who was at the top of the class and not bother him about playing Quidditch anymore.

"Alright, I'll do it Professor. But I have couple of terms I'd like Wood to accept first."

...

 **A/N: A few things I'd like all of you to know:**

 **a) Samridhi Sharma is Indian, so you'll hardly ever see her using common phrases that Britishers use although she might have picked up a few words in the past year (see _'git'_ ).**

 **b) Nalanda School of Sorcery is more commonly known as Nalanda University by the Muggles. It was founded by the great philosopher and poet Rabindranath Tagore, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature by the Muggle community (it's sort of a muggle equivalent of an Order of Merlin First Class)**

 **c) There may not be enough British/Scottish lingo in this story, simply because whenever I hear them talk, I forget to make notes because of the beautiful accents they have.**

 **And last, as the Muggles say,** _'Please Rate and Review!'_


	2. How very youthful!

**A/N: Hello my fellow witches and wizards!! I know it's been too long but i just wanted to take my time and give it my best shot. I promise the next chapter will not take this long. Hope you have as much fun reading this as I did writing it.**

 **As** **always, thank you Maria, you're an angel for rectifying my countless mistakes!**

To Oliver's surprise, Sharma's terms were quite easy to agree with. She only demanded that the time and place of the meetings should be made based of her schedule, and that he must be respectful towards her at all times. In exchange, Oliver asked her to leave him alone for a week before any Quidditch match they had to play.

They both left McGonagall's office at around six in the evening, quietly walking back to the common room in the company of each other.

After a while, Sharma spoke up.

"Could you please make me a copy of your time table after we reach the common room? I'd like to have it so that I can work out a time that suits both of us."

"Yeah, alright."

"Also, let me know when you make your Quidditch practice schedule. I'll alter our time according to it."

"Okay."

This was new. Was Sharma always this considerate and polite? She was working it out according to his schedule too and not giving him any bullshit. This was… _pleasant_. Oliver wanted to thank her but he just couldn't find the words in him. Her agreeing to tutor him was the main reason he would be able to play Quidditch again.

They reached the Gryffindor entrance and, as soon as Sharma was about to enter the common room, Oliver grabbed her hand and gave it a tug, forcing her to take a few steps back.

She looked up, her brown eyes growing wider by the second. She hadn't expected that at all.

"I...just wanted to say thank you, ehh.. for doing this." Oliver stammered, looking directly into her eyes, his breathing became a bit heavier and a weird _flutter_ started arising in his chest.

She gently but quickly pulled back her hand.

"I'm not doing this for you." She whispered.

She turned around, walked straight into the common room and continued towards the girls' dormitory, without sparing him a glance.

That weird flutter in his chest went away as quickly as it came, and was now replaced by growing irritation.

 _Girls._

……

Fred Weasley definitely wasn't one of the people who got surprised easily. Being best friends with Lee Jordon and one half of probably the most notorious duo Hogwarts had ever seen, he liked to think that he'd seen his fair share of weird and/or surprising things.

Today, however, he was thoroughly shocked.

He usually got up early. He blamed that habit on his mother and having a big family. But he had realized that it almost always played to his advantage: picking the best breakfast dishes, ample of time for doing homework and things like that, and today was no different.

Fred had gone to the Great Hall for breakfast when he saw two familiar faces in an unfamiliar setting. Oliver and Samridhi were sitting together having breakfast, occasionally chatting. From what he knew about Wood, and he liked to think he knew a lot ('five years worth of experiences' a lot), he knew Wood held grudges. That's why it was really shocking to see Wood talking to Sharma. Fred decided to have a bit of fun with it.

He approached the Gryffindor table and sat next to Sharma, who had not noticed him at all, being occupied with whispering to Wood.

"So, Sharma," she jumped a little after hearing his voice and he sniggered," why had McGonagall called you to her office yesterday?"

Wood, who was sitting on the other side of Sharma suddenly became interested in his spoon and tried not to show any interest in their conversation.

"Oh nothing, she just wanted to talk to me about my interest in teaching, that's all." She replied smoothly.

Fred wanted to have fun, but he knew this was the most he could push her. Another contributing factor that stopped him from annoying her was the fact that he thought she was kind of… ** _wicked_** ; and he had no idea why she was friends with his brother.

Wood, on the other hand, didn't know why he felt relieved. He knew for a fact that he wasn't ashamed of needing tutoring, but he appreciated the fact that Sharma kept it to herself.

He tried to imagine what would've happened if Percy Weasley was the one tutoring him, he probably would've shown off to anyone who could hear.

……..

Sharma and Wood decided to meet after Potions, since none of them had Divination which meant that they had a free period in between classes.

Sharma had concluded that Black Lake would be the quietest place they could study, since it was summer time and not many students would be out in the sun on a hot afternoon. They sat underneath a tree on the side of the lake.

"We won't start today. I just want you to mark all the subjects according to how difficult you think they are for you, one being the most difficult or the weakest subject you have and six being your strongest subject. We'll work on your weak subjects first."

It was the easiest one hour Wood had ever spent studying, if you could even call it that. Sharma spent majority of the time sketching out a rough schedule, occasionally asking for Oliver's inputs.

Sharma had all the subjects Wood had taken except for Muggle Studies, which happened to be Wood's strongest subject - a great benefit of growing up in a Muggle area.

"We'll have to study in the morning on alternate days when there's no Divination. I think it will be better than studying in the evenings. It will be much quieter and you will have the evenings free for Quidditch." Sharma said in the end, as they got up to leave for Defense Against The Dark Arts.

"Yeah, I think it's for the best. Our first lecture starts at 8, right? So how about 7?" Oliver suggested, as they walked through the corridor to Professor Gilderoy's class.

"Seven works for me. But not at the lake, somewhere inside the castle. Mornings here are a little too chilly for me. How about the common room?"

"No, it'll be too crowded. Most of my friends complete their homework at that time while discussing the Daily Prophet. How about the library?" Oliver recommended as they took the final turn for the class.

"Oh no, I don't think Madam Pince would allow that much talking. How about this, I'll ask Professor McGonagall to give us permission to use an empty cla-"

Samridhi had unknowingly crashed into someone. That someone was now looking at her with a very judgemental look, and that someone was none other than Percy Weasley.

Percy looked at her, then looked at Wood, who quickly drew back the hand that he instinctively put around her shoulder to stabilize her, and then back at her.

Before Percy could say anything, Samridhi heard something that was going to haunt her forever…

"Oh, a love triangle… How very youthful!" Professor Lockhart exclaimed from the top the stairs of his office.

The entire class went quiet. Everyone was now staring at the trio, some trying to hold back their smile while others, especially the Slytherins, had broad grins on their faces, clearly enjoying their embarrassment.

Samridhi didn't hear a word Lockhart said after that.

Gilderoy Lockhart had singlehandedly, with a charming smile on his face, turned her life into a soap in front of the entire Slytherin and Gryffindor house students of sixth year.

 _Oh this was not going to go away easily._

She grimaced.

 **A/N** : **As the Muggles say,** ' _Please Rate and Review' **if**_ **you liked this chapter!**


	3. Sorry for being a little late today

**A/n: Hello my fellow Witches and Wizards! I have absolutely no excuse why this update got so late, but I poured my heart in this chapter, I really hope you like it. I've made a new Pinterest board to give a current/newer face to all the major characters(if you don't like the casting, please please don't stop following my story) . 'll keep adding characters to it, but if you have any suggestions/vision for ANY character, I'm only a PM/Review away. I want to inform that Samridhi Sharma will not have a face, because I want every reader to have their own version of her. Alright, this has gone too long, but if you want to check out the board, I'll link it in my author's bio! **

Percy Weasley had no problem with getting out of the 'love triangle'. Penelope Clearwater, of house Ravenclaw and Percy's girlfriend, had paid no heed to the rumors, simply because she knew two of the three parties involved - Samridhi and Percy personally. Others, Percy didn't really care about.

Things were, however, not really looking particularly bright for the other two parties. Although both Sharma and Oliver had tried to ignore the rumors, it was affecting both of them on some level, mostly due to the fact that things were almost opposite to the rumors spreading around.

Oliver was particularly bugged because the rumors had taken a weird sort of twist. Alicia had told Fred, who had told Angelina, who had told him that the whole school thought that he had a thing for Sharma but Sharma had a thing for Weasley and Weasley just viewed Sharma as a friend. And he DID NOT have a thing for Sharma. Sure they had become civil as she'd started tutoring him, but it would be pushing it to call their arrangement even friendly, let alone _romantic_.

Sharma, on the other hand, understood why the rumors were coming around. Ever since Lockhart's dreadful class that day people had started paying more attention to her, quietly whispering among themselves as she went by. While observing her day to day activities, they probably had, she theorized, seen her with Wood when she was tutoring him. And that was the sole reason why even after three weeks, the rumors hadn't died down, neither had people's (mostly young girls) keen attention towards her.

Speaking of Wood, she was really impressed with his work ethic. He was always on time, did his homework as per her guidelines and was really making terrific progress. He had no problems in understanding the intricacy of wrist movements and vowel intensities of Charms, his weakest subject, it was just the practice he lacked, along with the poor habit of not taking detailed notes.

...

Samridhi made her way after her potions class to meet Wood for that day's session. She was in a hurry, since Snape had held the class back for a few minutes to give them an essay to write over the weekend on wolfsbane potion and its properties and nature.

She was mentally mapping her essay out when, yet again, she collided into someone, causing the few books that were in her hand to fall.

She bent down to pick them up as she opened her mouth to apologize but the other person beat her to it.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize where I was going," the voice spoke up.

Samridhi finally lifted her head to take her share of the responsibility when she realized who she had collided with - Marcus Flint, Chaser and Captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team.

She finally came to her senses and realized that she had been sort of staring him and quickly babbled, "Oh no, I wasn't paying attention either. Equally at fault."

She give him a final smile and rushed towards the lake, thinking how late she was and how Wood would definitely make some snide remark on that.

…..

"Alright, you're all done for today Wood, just practice the wrist movements, we'll try the Engorgement Charm on this book tomorrow. And again, sorry for being a little late today" Samridhi concluded, apologetically.

"That's alright, I'm only rigidly concerned about punctuality on the Quidditch ground, it matters much more to me than any subject or class." Wood replied, idly tossing his book back in his bag.

"Then why were you willing to give it up for the same subjects and classes?" Samridhi blurted out and, as soon as she'd spoken those words, immediately regretted it. She and Wood weren't that close, heck, they weren't even friends, she had no right to ask such a personal question.

She knew she had made a mistake when Wood suddenly became very serious and rigid, his eyes focused on a tiny dandelion that stood alone amongst a bunch of other wild flowers.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked. It's a private matter."

"My dad's a Muggle," he started, much to her astonishment, "and in the Muggle World when an athlete gets seriously injured, they're usually out of the game or it leaves a lasting impact on their health because Muggles know no healing charms."

"When I started showing interest in Quidditch, my mother had explained to my father what it all entailed and at that time had jokingly said that although a few people disappear, no one had died playing the game. Since then, he's had an apprehension towards it, and it started growing more and more as I became older and started getting injured in games. My mother and I have **tried** to explain so many times that medicine and health of muggles are far behind ours. He got fed up after my results last year and asked me to drop Quidditch, because one injury could ruin my entire life and career."

Oliver felt as if the weight was lifted off his shoulder, he had no idea why he told her out of all the people he knew, but it felt good that someone finally knew the truth, other than him and his family.

He guessed it was because he was under the impression that she didn't care, and because he _knew_ she hated his guts enough not to show him any pity. And that's exactly the only thing he didn't want - pity and sympathy.

"Did you ever wonder," she whispered quietly, "how and why did I join Hogwarts, in the middle of school education? My dad got a job at the British Ministry of Magic, as a representative of India, but my mom had her career that she didn't want to leave, and so they decided that she'll stay there and my father and I, we'll go to England. I found out about it when my mother barged into my room one day and started packing up my stuff to move. Now, I only see her on Christmas and after the term ends. Even then it's only for a few days. Don't get me wrong, I love my parents and they love each other, but they've sacrificed a lot for their careers, including having a real functional family." She sighed.

Oliver knew the instant she'd stopped speaking why she'd told him something so personal. She wanted him to feel secure about his secret, that it'll stay safe with her, as she was expecting and hoping he'll do too. She had silently given her trust in exchange for a hope, that he'll give his to her.

And for the first time in his life, Oliver Wood truly looked at Samridhi Sharma, as a friend, but at the same time something else entirely, something that made her different than all others, something he couldn't really point a finger at. Someone…a little bit different than a friend.

As they sat by the end of the lake quietly, and comfortably, in the company of each other, still comprehending their thoughts andfeelings about what had just happened, none of them realized that they'd both missed their Defense Against The Dark Arts class.

 **A/n: As Muggles say, _"Please Rate and Review!"_**


	4. Subjective Humor He'd Called It

Marcus Flint was a lot of things, and one of those, probably the one he was most confident about, was that he was a smooth talker.

There was this one time in his Transfiguration class in the fourth year when he had accidentally turned his partner in the class into a donkey when it was meant to be a horse and he was able to convince McGonagall that it was purely intentional (subjective humor he had called it).

Since that day he liked to think that he could probably charm his way out of and into almost anything, and that was something he wanted to try really soon, to put his abilities to test.

Gryffindor vs Slytherin was just a week away and from what Marcus knew, Wood was working day and night in order to defeat them again. And he could not handle this embarrassment again, losing to Gryffindor had been a hit on his pride already last year. So in order to distract Wood this year just to help Slytherin's case a bit more( in addition to the brilliant new Nimbus 2001s that Malfoy's father had gotten the entire team), he had come up with a brilliant plan.

He liked to know what all was going on in the school and one of the hot topics of discussion nowadays, which he'd himself witnessed once in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class was the 'friendliness' of Wood and Sharma, the girl he'd bumped into a while back.

Marcus wasn't really into her but he could see why Wood would be attracted to her. She had a weird sort of quirky charm to her plus her Indian accent was pretty fascinating to hear. She was his opportunity to piss off Wood so that he'd be too distracted to concentrate on the game.

……

"Alright, you're all done for today Wood, we'll meet here same time next week." Sharma said as she started packing up her stuff.

"Will you be coming to watch the game?" Oliver inquired. Ever since _that_ day he had started having these sudden impulses to know everything about her and her day to day activities. He still couldn't quite comprehend why he wanted to know such pieces of information.

"Well Quidditch is not a very popular sport in India because we use carpets more than brooms so I don't really know the rules of the gam- I'm probably explaining too much, aren't I? You just wanted to know yes or no, and my answer is no, because I know very little about it," she concluded sheepishly.

Oliver couldn't help but feel a tinge of disappointment by this answer, he'd have loved to see her in the stands supporting the team but he kept the thought to himself, deep deep down to himself.

……….

Later that evening, Samridhi was sitting with Percy in the common room when a second year kid named Neville approached her, looking a bit peaky. He seemed to have been shaken up, like he'd seen the insides of Nearly Headless Nick or got scolded by Bloody Baron. She noticed he was gripping a piece of parchment in his hand as if his life depended on it, which, to her surprise, he handed to her. As she opened her mouth to inquire about his well being, he just ran away from the common room into the boys dormitory.

She was concerned about the kid, from what she'd heard about him from Hermione, a girl from his class who Samridhi liked quite a lot, he was bullied a lot by the Slytherin kids. Poor kid, what must it feel like to be this scared and meddled with so frequently-

"So what does it say?" Percy's voice pulled her out of her thoughts a little.

"What does what say?"

"The parchment he gave you!"

"Oh that.." she slowly opened up the paper, mind still on Neville, and eyes focused on the stairs he ran up from...

"MARCUS FLINT ASKED YOU OUT??!" Percy suddenly whispered loudly, making her heart jump a little.

"What?" She replied a little louder than she'd wanted to.

Her attention was certainly diverted from Neville now. She looked at the piece of parchment and it said,

 ** _"Hullo Samridhi,_**

 ** _If you're free this weekend I'd like to have a Butterbeer with you and would love to get to know you a bit better, hopefully on a first name basis. How does 3 o clock at Three Broomsticks sound? Let me know._**

 ** _Marcus Flint."_**

She read the letter once, and then again, and then again. And then she burst out giggling.

"Oh come on Percy, you can't be serious… I'm sure someone is just pulling a prank on me, maybe one of the twins. I mean I don't even know this guy, I've never talked to him inside or outside the class. Don't pay too much attention to it" she laughed as she crushed the piece of paper and aimed to throw it in the bin. It missed by a foot or so.

"So what were you telling me about Penelope…"

….

Oliver had been giving the team a little chat on the formations against Slytherin in the common room when he saw Longbottom come in pale faced and running straight to Sharma. Since Oliver played a sport that required quick reflexes and minute attention to every detail in the surrounding, it would've been hard to make out that after every few seconds as he lowered his head to explain the formations from the parchment, he would ever so slightly tilt his heard in order to see what was going on with Sharma and Longbottom.

He saw Weasley whispering loudly, presumably about what written in the parchment, in the next tilt he saw Sharma laughing and throwing the parchment towards the bin and in the next tilt he smirked, she would've been a terrible Chaser, he thought, since the parchment didn't go in.

Oliver would be lying if he said his interest wasn't peeked by the reaction of the three parties involved, so after explaining the formations, he hung out in the common room for a bit longer, so that the crowd would thin out. He got near the bin and pretended to throw a piece of gum and picked up the parchment while coming back. He knew it was wrong for him to read it but his curiosity got better of him.

To say he felt sad after reading the note would be an understatement.

Something dropped in his stomach, he figured it was probably his heart.

And that's when it hit him.

He was _in love_ with _Samridhi_.

And that was probably the very first time he'd referred to her by her name, even if it was in his head.

Bloody hell.

……….

The next day after the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Samridhi stopped after someone called after her.

She turned around to see Marcus Flint approaching her, an apprehensive smile on his face.

"So, what do you think? I didn't hear from you so I thought I should just straight up ask you, face to face. So, would you be interested in going for a Butterbeer in Hogsmeade this weekend?" He asked, plastering all his charm with smile on his face.

"It was really you? Oh. I thought someone was pulling a prank on me."

She sighed.

Her dating life was pretty much non-existent but she didn't know a thing about this guy! What would they even talk about? Potions? The weather? Politics? Quidditch?

Thinking about Quidditch, Wood's face suddenly flashed before her eyes… she knew that Wood detested Flint and somehow… she was starting to grow weary of that teethy smile.

She put on a plastic smile and politely declined, "I'm so sorry but I hardly know you, we've never even talked!"

Flint's smile faltered a bit, she could see that he didn't take rejections too well.

"But that's the whole point, get a drink or two with me in order to get to know me. You know what, just don't answer right now, I'll be waiting at Three Broomsticks, if you show up, that'd be fantastic, if you don't, no hard feelings. How's that?"

Before she could reply, she heard Flint say something that sent chills down her spine.

"Hey Wood, what's up? Good luck for the game, you're going to need it."

He gave a final squeeze to her shoulder and asked her to think about it and left.

She turned around, her body felt rigid and an uncanny guilt was growing in the pit of her stomach, like she'd done something horribly wrong.

But to her surprise, Oliver was nowhere to be seen.

 _Oliver._

That was the first time she'd ever called him by his first name, even in her head.

It had an oddly _intimate_ ring to it.

Weird.


End file.
